The International Skating Union will either cancel or move the world figure-skating championships to October, according to a story in Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"At this moment, respect for the Japanese people prevails," ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta told the newspaper.
The story dismisses the suggestion that the world championship could be held in another city. Cinquanta acknowledges that the logistics would be too difficult under tight time constraints.
"It wouldn't be correct towards a country that has been struck by such a tragedy and towards the Japanese federation, which was awarded the right to stage the competition," Cinquanta said.
He said he and council members will debate the situation very carefully over the next few days and will make a further announcement on Friday or Monday. They could either cancel the event outright, or move it to October, although that plan would run smack against next season. The first senior Grand Prix event of the next season is Skate Canada Oct. 21 to 23 in Mississauga, Ont.
By that time, skaters will have made new programs that are untested, or some may no longer be skating. Canadian silver medalist Shawn Sawyer planned to stop competing this season, to take up work as a choreographer in Quebec.
Cinquanta said if the Japanese authorities gave the ISU "the go-ahead" or if they decide to move the event to another city - with more time to plan in October - that Japan would surely be awarded another world championships in the future.
If the world championships are cancelled, it would be the first time in 50 years, when the entire U.S. world team was killed in a plane crash en route to the 1961 world championships in Prague. In that crash 72 people were killed, 34 of them members of the world team.
The ISU had planned to commemorate the skaters who perished in a special presentation at the world championships in Japan. They were to show a movie about the incident.